What Color Is Your Parachute?

What Color Is Your Parachute? By Richard Nelson Bolles is the first career counseling book I ever read. This book is a comprehensive guide to choosing and finding not just any job, but a job that is a great fit with your interests, values, abilities and personal needs. Finding a job today presents unique challenges that did not exist five years ago. That is why Richard Nelson Bolles’ acclaimed job hunter’s bible; “What Color is Your Parachute?” is so relevant.

First published in 1970, What Color Is Your Parachute? is now in it's 35th printing. This book is a detailed guide for those who are going through the agonizing process of job hunting or changing careers. This book has now sold over 9 million copies, and in 2006 Fortune magazine said: "Parachute remains the gold standard of career guides." Its author, Richard Nelson Bolles, has become a real guru in the job search arena. Initially a more traditionally conceived step-by-step approach to developing resumes, interviewing and job hunting, today is version of Parachute is an in depth and very practical look at the whole job search process.

It is full of great exercises that help you to assess your own career-related needs and understand how your personality and values impact your job satisfaction in ways that many people never consider. I have read a lot of books about making career choices, and What Color is Your Parachute? is, hands down, my favorite general career guide. It tackles all of the major career-related issues in depth and it is updated every year. There are two types of job searches: the traditional, and the life-changing. The former requires the usual resume-matched-to-the-employer-formula. The latter begins with a weekend of honest soul-searching and really deep thought. The actual life-changing job hunt may take much longer. You must have adequate reserves of energy and determination to go on this hunt.

Bolles also guides the reader through the process of starting a business instead of working for an employer; shares interviewing tips for smarties; lists the seven secrets of salary negotiation; and discloses the secret of finding your dream job. Probably, one of the most unique aspects of ‘What Color Is Your Parachute?’ is the introspective focus, looking at a job and career search from the filter of your values

There are other books that do a great job of focusing on one specific career management topic. However, if you can only buy one, all encompassing book to help you manage your career and your job search, what Color is Your Parachute? is the book that I would recommend.